"Some political forces are using Islam or its radical trends," Russia's President noted

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UFA, October 22 (Itar-Tass) - Spiritual leaders of Islamic religious organizations should join the governmental agencies in an effort to resist the politicizing of Islam, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday at a conference with muftis of various regional Islamic religious departments of Russia.

“A process of active - and far from always beneficial - politicizing of various aspects of religion, including Islam, is picking pace across the world today,” Putin said. “The government and the Russian Moslem community are facing new problems and tasks in this sense and these tasks can be resolved only by concerted efforts.”

“Some political forces are using Islam or its radical trends, to be more precise — and recall that these trends are highly untypical of Russian Moslems - in a bid to enfeeble our state, to create the zones of conflicts here that would be controlled from the outside, to seed discord among the various ethnic groups among the Moslem community as such, and to fan separatist moods in different regions,” he said.

It is important to invoke the Russian Moslems’ commitment to their historical traditions as an instrument for rebuffing these strivings, Putin said. He urged the Russian Moslems to set up relations of partnership with other religious denominations and especially with the Russian Orthodox Church.

In spite of a big number of schools and trends within Islam, the Russian Moslems have always been united in serving society and the state, Putin said.